New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-06-26
NOTES FROM LONDON.
rss ADELAIDE DETCHON-LONDON SOCI-
ETy-MISS FORTESCUE ON AMERICA.

IL ia I think, two or three years since
nur countrywOman, MISS Adelaide Detchon'
came TO London She has been heard during
this time in private drawingrooms ana was
If recollect rightly. for some short time Oh 'ne
stage of the Avenue Theatre. Then she undertook
tour into the provinces and captiVa'eu 'noso 70
noter PARTS of the Kingdom which according TO Mr.
Gladstone. are the repositories OF sound opinions,
7 snppose ON matters of art AZ well as of pol
it;c. Edinburgh was at her feet and tue STU
dents of Edinburgh University became her sworn
eeryants They are going to give her
a testimonial or decoration, or know not wha'.
Now however, she is in London and is giving "na'
am told are not to be called recitas at frinces
Hall ia Piccadilly. The word recital is not popu-
lar; the thing itself is not popular and MI sargent
who manages for Miss Detchon. offers the puohc
no phrase IN exchange But he offers them an Gu
tertainment for which London IL IL haa lhe 'inie'
would be grateful to him.
These are days when the coming Jubilee swai-
lows ND everything. But, Jubilee or no Jubilee,
people will 90 to see Miss Detchon when they have
discovered her. They go now, but 1t Is the people
who set the fashion who have not yet discovered
her. 1t is not enough that they should nave seen
her at Lady Molesworths last year or year before
Memories are too short. The papers described her
rs graceful and pleasing and pretty-even Inc
Times said as much as tbat-and society journals
told us that she electrified an audience which IN
cluded the Heir Apparent. the Princess OF wales
Princess Louise, Lady Randolph Churchill and
many more. None of these great personages were
at Princes Hall the other evening. Ihey
were all at Ascot Miss Detchon's recitals
were given before house which was full without
being fashionable, and which was extremely
enthusiastic. There was enough to justify their
enthusiasm 1t is extraordinary how many things
this young lady can do and do well. Her range III
recitation covers the pathetic, the comic the de-
scriptive She sings, she acts she moves about the
stage with an ease and selfpossession which her
voutn makes the more remarkable: her gestures
are very carefully studied, very graceful Dut not
self-cOnscious; her voice full. pure melodious ana
powerful. Above all things she never ceases 10
amuse and to interest, and she is admirable IN the
art of delivering other peoples words, IN when SO
few are even toerable This blonde young beauty
has. IN word, the gifts and the charm which
promise to insure her something more than the
usual success
SAID that the Jubilee swallowed up everything,
but 1t would be more exact to say that there is
great rush to get everything in, rs the London
phrase goes this week before the Jubilee fortnight
begins Every night will then be taken ~, and so
every night of this week is filled five deep with
festivities. at all which all the fashionable world
est friends no longer respect each Others engage
ments. Nothing is "smart" enough to occupy the
whole of any one evening, from IL till any time
you like next morning. People go first to what
they think will be the earliest thing. If it be
private concert they hear half OF It, OF
o third, then get up and go on 10 tne
next This arrangement is ingenious. Iney as
turb one by leaving and the second by arriving.
Nobody cares-nobody but the artists. whose 1eei'
ings need not be considered. and the musical en-
thusiasts who know what to expect and need not
60 if they do not like it. Then to ball $50 sorry,
but must go and look after my girls" serenely
observes the departing British maron to the hostess
who sees her salon emptying and takes her stand
by the door of exit in the hope of terrifying the
t1mid into waiting till Alban has finished her song
"A vain hope If there are two balls the daughters
are of course at the BETTER If equally good, both
must somehow be managed. AS matters stand this
week. the London evening begins with dinner az
baIf-nast 8 proceeds with "smai and early
marty at quarter to IL; continues with con-
cert or another party. or two parties, between IL
and -; winds up with ball. or dance al the
New Club /; or with two balls the cotlllon at the
last not ending much before D a. m. Yet very
likely YOU will see the young land old ladies who
have gone through all these ceremonies In the
Park next morning not long after noon. Rotten
Row till Q D. H.; lunch calls drive IN the Park tea,
Garden party at 5 or 6, lawn tennis perhaps, or
charity concert or bazaar. or any one OF dozen
other entertainments before going nome at 10
dress for the next $50 dinner And yet there are
people who say that his is rather dull season.
Miss Fortescue has sgnalized her return from
America in the usual way she has been inter-
viewed, and she has impaired to her interviewer
such opinions or impressions as she had formed or
received during her six or seven months tour LII the
States. They appear III hali-penny evening pa
Der known as The Erening Ne,cs journal which Is
perhaps not often heard of in America Mr.. Frank
Harris edits 1t and its politics are red-hot Torysm'
But of politics there is 10 question. The question
ia what Miss Fortescue thinks of America
She at any rate skips politics. and be-
gins with the railroads, which she de-
clares to be horrid The force OF TINS
feminine adjective is weakened by adding that
they are stuffy, uncomfortable, incommodiOus no
priyacy-altogether detestable and abonlnabie.
Then comes more perilous topic-American
women Miss Fortescue passes from censure TO
eulogy without a word OF transition. she auihires
the dressing of American women, or as she GU
riously puts it, the result of exterior personal dec
grafton. "Of all the delicious sirens who have
lured weared men TO destruction none do II more
exouis,tely than our American cousins" They
have good hands, if it be good to have hands "ex-
ouisitey useless; their feet were to their English
cousin invisible But dress is the thing. "A
girl who has left Nevada or any Western
State six weeks before wears her clothes with an
exquisite grace and go which denies the possibility
of any previous existence less admirable" The
last part of this sentence has obvious connection
with the first but Miss Fortescue clearly means to
say something hattering
So of the American houses-they have the merit
of being built with the most hospitable intent.
None of them, however, are like Newstead, hal
lowed by every association of antiquity and genius;
and now also by associations Of the actress who
has just been wandering about its delightful old
walksn As for the American people IN general,
they have no humor with the singular exception